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NEW! Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Chamber Working Group

On Tuesday, December 1^st the Chamber Policy team was pleased to hold the first meeting of the Chamber GMO Working Group gathering representatives of the different industries in the Chamber Conference Facilities to discuss the changes in the legislation which are in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada and current situation around registration of products which contain genetically modified ingredients.

As of today the Law of Ukraine “On the State Biosafety System for Developing, Testing, Transportation and Usage of Genetically Modified Organisms” addresses the issues around GMOs and establishes the general framework for the GMO regulation in Ukraine. At the same time, currently Ukraine lacks legal normative acts that would provide further systematic approach in the GMO handling that should be developed by the relevant state authorities in line with the Law on State Bio-safety.

Recently some decisions were adopted by the Government regulating the issue of the GMO, in particularly regulation of the testing and registration of crop plants containing the GMOs, the order for permit issuance for transit of non-registered GMOs, regulation of food product labeling, etc. In 2009 the Government also took a decision to form a relevant reference laboratory and relevant network of the GMO test laboratories, which will be established within the Environment Protection Ministry and the State Committee on Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy (DerzhSpozhyvStandard).

Members of the Working Group discussed two Draft Laws recently registered in the Parliament of Ukraine. On October 28^th, 2009 the Draft Law #5286 “On Prohibition of Using Genetically Modified Organisms in Ukraine” was submitted to the Parliament by the people’s Deputy Yuriy Miroshnichenko (Party of Regions).

The document provides for a ban on any use of GMO and products derived from the use of GMO (except GMO products for export), as well as prohibits importation of GMO products into the customs territory of Ukraine, except those that are intended for research purposes or State approbation and testing.

On November 11^th Draft Law #5286-1 “On Proclamation of Ukraine as a Territory Free from Genetically Modified Organisms” was registered in the Parliament by People Deputy Volodymyr Danylenko from the Communist Party of Ukraine. The document as well as the above mentioned one proposes to provide absolute prohibition of GMO product usage and dissemination on the territory of Ukraine.